Korean Style Red Bean Shaved Ice Patbingsoo 팥빙수 Obsessions come home

There was a summer during college, when I went to Korea in order to figure out if teaching was what I wanted to do.  My aunt helped line up a series of students for me to experiment on, and I landed in Korea and had my own tiny little room in another aunts house.  I spent my days teaching and my evenings hunting down Seouls best version of their summer time dessert, patbingsoo, or red bean shaved ice.

I actually remember the first time someone offered it to me and I was immediately put off by the idea of red bean and ice.  WHAT?  Weird!  Its like refried beans that are cold?  Gross!  No way!  But when my cousin insisted that I try it, I did and I was so hooked I became obsessed.  My cousin suggested that we attempt to eat one red bean shaved ice each day and compare our favorites and find out which we liked the best.  It sounded like a great challenge and Id even skip dinner some nights (as it was super hot anyways) just so I could go out and hunt for a great shaved ice with my cousin.  We ate cheap ones from mini corner stores that had a ton of fruit cocktail dumped on top, to fancier versions in hotel restaurants that had expensive and beautifully cut fruit arranged on top, much like one would decorate a cake.  We would eat them in bakeries and we would hunt them down in bookstores.  It became a ritual to hunt down another place where we could have them and we fulfilled our daily intake of shaved ice that summer.

While living in Korea, I also would occaisionally grab one during the summer, but for some reason I wasnt as crazy about it as I used to be.  Perhaps it was my anti-bean husband who didnt much care for it, or the fact that its one of those dishes I associate with solitude and peace, and children dont equal solitude and peace.  For whatever reason, I didnt eat it much.

Last week, on the 4th of July, I had some friends over, and my friend brought this dish as a dessert.  There were a good number of people over, but she prepared an awesome selection of fruits and toppings and brought it over to share.  I shaved ice for folks and people got to decide what they wanted on their patbingsoo.  It was Childrens first time ever seeing a manual ice shaver (yes, weve never been to Hawaii) and it ended up being super exciting for them.

In short, I had to go out and get everything so that I could begin my love affair with patbingsoo again.  I tried grinding the ice in the Vitamix as an initial solution, and it kind of worked, but not as well as I wanted.  I went and got a manual ice shaving machine from our local Ranch 99 along with a bunch of other ingredients readily available at the market.  Children became experts at creating the shaved ice dish of their dreams and I began creating the shaved ice versions from my own memory.

I personally favor the simpler shaved ices, which focuses more on fresh fruit and fewer toppings like this one.  With shaved ice, watermelon, red bean, mochi, and a little scoop of sweetened condensed milk its the most refreshing one that I enjoy.

 Some people like a more complicated, more topping-filled one which has a variety of fruits, nata de coco (coconut jelly), lychees (canned), mochi, sweetened condensed milk and a sprinkling of cereal.

There is also the option of a scoop of vanilla ice cream to add to your shaved ice.

 Then you have my nutty kids who refuse to eat the red bean (which is sort of the whole point of the dish) and proceed to enjoy their shaved ice with a ton of fruit and a ton of syrupy soaked toppings.  Go figure.

The range of choices is super wide and people seem to have their own preferences of what they like so you can set out a bar of choices and let people construct them.  The key is to have cold everything - fruit, canned items, and condensed milk.  The colder everything is, the less ice meltage you have, which is the desired effect.  Prepare and wash your fruit and cut it and stick it back in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

The important ingredient is the ice itself.  Ice shavers come in a variety of permutations, but the best ones are simple to use, simple to clean, and simple to replace.  I found one for $11 at Ranch 99, and a lot of Asian markets will have one for less than you can find online.  In addition, try to find one that includes the ice molds so that you can create large disks of ice that shave the most efficiently in your ice shaver.  You can also find them on Amazon for a little bit more money, but if youre not close to a Chinese or Asian market, it may be your best option.

 As for my canned ingredients, here they are.  The red beans, although probably even tastier if I made them myself, taste very lovely in this dish from a can.  Sweetened condensed milk is the final sweet and creamy touch on top.  Nata de coco are coconut jellies and are currrently the obsession of both Daughters.  They also like the lychees in syrup, even though Im not a huge fan.  All these I got at my local Ranch 99, with the red beans and condensed milk coming in at above $3.

Some people even like a little sprinkling of cereal. I think the tiny bits of mochi, which are at your local Korean market or Japanese market, are the most important.  But choose what you like and arrange cold toppings on a tray or a table and let your guests go to work!

My obsession at home!  Im ready to mix this up!

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Maple Custard Vanilla Bean Pie Youth is not wasted on the young

For AC, BK, PS - youve made this round of applications truly enjoyable.

The fall is often a hectic time for me, as it is the season of college applications.  Some years are lighter but this year I ended up with a couple of students who decided to apply early to colleges, which means that Ive had more meetings with senior students in recent days.  Most of my work has to do with the writing of essays, as I try to make sure that each of the applicants figures out what story they want to tell and then I help them to figure out how to tell it well.  It is often a grueling process as the story that needs to be told is often unwieldy and rather hard to put into a well-crafted, 500 word piece of writing; the students have to stand out and be memorable, and yet appear to the reader of their writing that they will "fit-in" into the school. Its a fine balance that leads to lots of deleted words, many restarts, and unmentionable false starts.

Each year I survive the application process and I think to myself, "This will be my last year" because oftentimes the pressure on the students is hard to watch.  Yet each year I find myself with more students knocking on my door, and so for a brief three to four month period, I try and help students get the best of who they are on paper.  Its a process that pushes me to ask questions of the students, try and quickly get to know the applicant, and subsequently become a brutal and harsh critic of work until eventually 500 words get hammered into a beautiful piece of writing.  I think probably the aspect that appeals to me the most is watching the process of each student, initially each as tentative, unsure storyteller of his or her own life, to the development of a piece of work that truly represents who they are and the story they want to tell.  Its a process that I think some people take advantage of, trying to twist it into something for financial gain or personal bragging rights, but I tell the students that come to me that I want them to leave with a greater understanding of who they are and to be able to tell that on paper.  I dont make lofty promises of where students will get in, nor do I try to force a story that needs to be told in order to "look good."  The best pieces of writing have candor, honesty, and a moment of self discovery.

This year, in particular, I have three really amazing students who in different ways blow my mind.  Since August, Ive been punishing them with my questions and pushing them to get their stories told - and the stories they have to tell particularly move my heart.  I actually wondered tonight, why do I feel so connected to students whom Ive only known for three months. I actually felt several moments of heaviness when I also realized that once their applications are completed, I will fade into the distance and they will resume life and finish their senior year.  Generally I wont hear from them until the texts come in March and April, joyously revealing their acceptances to me.  This group of three, I will be sad to see them leave my office, and after thinking and reflecting I think it is the stories that they tell that reveal their character that move me, because they are all characters and qualities I highly admire.

As students from a pretty normal, average public high school, Im in awe of their development as human beings and people - they are young, but they are bold and they are interesting.  One student has a particular awareness of social inequity and social injustice within her school setting, and seeks to change it on both micro and macro levels.  Her awareness of this issue, even as the privileged majority, both warms my heart and makes me partially ashamed that I had no such context of understanding when I was her age.  Another is one of those naturally gifted and phenomenal musicians, with power and control over music and notes and musical ideas.  In conjunction with his musical gifts is a talent in science that he pushed and honed during his years into school, and made a second passion, matched only by his passion for his music.  The third is the talented comic, dancer, theater type, matched with her ambition for greatness and her brain for statistics.  Her wit, dry humor, and deadpan delivery of hysterical moments of her life have made me laugh until I cried, and coupled with this is an ability to express powerful emotions through the lens of humor.

In the near future, Id be honored to work for any of these three young adults, if only to learn the things that they know and to understand their perspective of the world through their eyes. From a pretty normal, ordinary childhood, in a pretty ordinary town, these three have carved for themselves their own extraordinary paths and it is the most delicious and amazing thing to behold.

This custard pie - simple ordinary ingredients turn into something delicious and beyond ordinary, and it is one of those dishes youll miss when youre gone.  It is not too sweet, complex in flavor, but the texture and the act of eating is just pure joy.  It isnt hard to prepare as there are few ingredients, but it is hard to keep around once its made. It will be an amazing addition to your holiday table, and one that once its gone, youll think fondly upon it and wish you had more.

To the three this year who have touched my life, Ill miss you when youre gone, but think fondly upon your future successes. Ill eat this pie, and always remember you.

Maple Custard Vanilla Bean Pie

Makes 9 inch pie, for 8 to 10 people

Pastry (adapted from Williams-Sonoma) (Feel free to use a store bought pre-baked pie crust if you prefer)

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoons salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Method

Preheat oven to 375.

To make the dough in a stand mixer, fit the mixer with the flat beater, and stir together the flour, sugar and salt in the mixer bowl. Add the butter and toss with a fork to coat with the flour mixture. Mix on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the water and mix on low speed just until the dough pulls together.

Transfer the dough to a work surface and flatten into a disk. (Although many dough recipes call for chilling the dough at this point, this dough should be rolled out immediately for the best results.) Take ball and lightly flour the work surface, then flatten the disk with 6 to 8 gentle taps of the rolling pin. Lift the dough and give it a quarter turn. Lightly dust the top of the dough or the rolling pin with flour as needed, then roll out into a round at least 12 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick.  Lay crust into 9 inch pie pan; trim overhang.

Place a piece of parchment or aluminum foil on top of the pie crust and fill with dried beans or weights.  Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven, remove weights and parchment, and bake for an additional 15 minutes more.  Remove from oven and set aside.

Maple Custard Filling and Construction

Ingredients

¾ cup maple syrup

1 vanilla bean, split

2 ¼ cups heavy cream

4 egg yolks

1 whole egg

¼ teaspoon salt

Method

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, add maple syrup and split vanilla bean, and reduce maple syrup by a third, 5 to 7 minutes.  (Note - it is possible to over reduce and get something close to candy.  As long as it’s not burnt, it’s fine to add the cream and create cream and maple mixture.) Stir in cream and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and egg. Whisking constantly, slowly add cream mixture to eggs. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a cup or bowl with pouring spout (Vanilla bean and extra non-smooth parts of custard will be left behind.) Stir in salt.

Pour filling into crust and transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until pie is firm to touch, but jiggles slightly when moved, about 1 hour. Let cool to room temperature before serving.

Printable recipe

When ordinary ingredients become great.

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